Rush Hour 3

What in the world happened to Chris Tucker? After “Rush Hour 2,” he was nowhere to be seen for at least six years. Was it because people ranted and raved about a Chinese martial artist and a black comedian in a buddy cop movie? Listen here people, like I had stated in my “Lethal Weapon” review, Danny Glover said that the racial fear of people complaining about a black and white buddy cop duo never goes away. Come on now, if Danny Glover and Mel Gibson can work together as a buddy cop duo, as well as any other duo that has one white actor and one black actor, then why can’t an Asian man and a black man? The thing about buddy cops that make them partners is they are both polar opposites and learn to work with one another as the film goes on. And if that is successful enough, then guarantee a sequel or two or more.

Or was it because “Rush Hour 2” wasn’t very well received? I don’t see why that would bother him because a lot of people liked the movie and thought it was funnier than the first one. That’s what I thought. It expanded the story, Lee and Carter learned to grow as partners, and we learn more about the characters. Plus, the action was really good and the comedic timing from both of them was great. Maybe Tucker wasn't getting that many good roles, hence why we hadn't seen him for a while.

Anyway, after six years of not seeing Chris Tucker anywhere, he finally reappears on screen in 2007 in “Rush Hour 3.” When I first saw the trailer to this, I was thinking, “Seriously? They made a third one?” I first didn’t think there was any reason and thought that was just a joke when in one of the “Rush Hour 2” bloopers when John Lone fell onto the cab, Tucker said, “He ain’t going to be in ‘Rush Hour 3’.” Turns out they made it, but I didn’t see this until I got it from the local library.

“Rush Hour 3” was officially announced on May 7, 2006, and they started to film it on Independence Day of that year. It grossed about $258,022,233 worldwide. There are even a couple of familiar faces in this one. Tzi Ma is back as Ambassador Han and Zhang Jingchu plays an adult Soo Yung. Even Roselyn Sanchez shows up as Isabella in one of the deleted scenes and Phillip Baker Hall reprises his role as Captain Diel, but both of them were uncredited. Director Roman Polanski is in this film as Detective Revi, a French policeman who was involved in the case Lee and Carter are assigned to in this film. Yes, this film takes place first in Los Angeles and then it goes to Paris, France.

Even though this film was rated PG-13 here, it was rated M in Australia and did not even appear in theaters in China so that a larger amount of foreign films could screen. This has been told by a business representative. Either that or China did not like the fact that Jackie Chan was starring in a movie with Tucker. What do the Chinese have against blacks, are they racist?

Jeff Nathanson wrote the script, who is described as a combination of Francis Ford Coppola and Alfred Hitchcock. According to Carrie Rickey of the Inquirer Movie Critic, “Nathanson's best invention: a cabbie (Yvan Attal) who denounces America and its love of car chases, guns and violence. And who, after a few minutes in Carter and Lee's vehicle-chasing, gunplaying, butt-kicking company, is ready to apply for U.S. citizenship.”

Brett Ratner had hired J. Michael Muro as cinematographer and he had done a poor job of trying to join Muro’s radiant images with special effects. Try to imagine Muro building a great storyboard design then Ratner decides to rip it to shreds.

Unlike in “Rush Hour 2” where we saw two strong women, here they are used as eye-candy. Jingchu is a very attractive actress, but doesn’t really do much in the film. Noemie Lenoir plays Genevieve, who is basically like a model that is seen scantily-clad and has a secret. Youki Kudoh plays Jasmine the Dragon Lady who may look good but will turn around and act like Zhang Ziyi from “Rush Hour 2.”

The villain in this film is Kenji, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, who turns out to be Lee’s long lost brother. Now that is a sudden dark turn. He falls off the Eiffel Tower when a safety rope snaps. After realizing that he and Lee cannot survive, Kenji tells Lee to let him go.

If you’re wondering if the comedy in this film is there, it is. Chan can easily put a kung-fu whopping on anyone while Tucker talks his way out of situations, but also ends up doing some funny fight choreography as well. The part where the French Chinese man is being interrogated by Lee and Carter and Lee tells Carter that he’s speaking French, Carter slaps the Chinese man and says, “You Asian man, stop humiliating yourself.” When they get the nun, Sister Agnes, played by Dana Ivey, to translate for them, it’s a scene that gets funny one line after another. Especially with them using the first letter of a swear word just so they don’t curse in front of a nun, or they will go to Satan's home. Or how about when Lee and Carter go to the Dojo, Carter is asking people their names and it turns into a tribute to the famous Abbot and Costello's sketch, "Who's on first?" In my opinion, this film is the funniest of the three.

Since this is a buddy movie, Lee and Carter insult each other; give each other diet advice and jokes, while still being there for one another. Chan does not fail to impress with his own kung-fu stunts while Tucker tries to do some kung-fu, but does a fighting style of his own. That’s what makes the action in this movie so funny. Check this one out if you haven’t seen it yet, you are definitely missing out on some nice comedy in this one.

I have been hearing rumors of a “Rush Hour 4,” which would be great. Series producer Arthur Sarkissian said that they are working on a fourth film with Chan and Tucker signed on, and also admitted to bring back Brett Ratner if he will “do it the right way.” Sarkissian said he did not like the third movie and that he wants the fourth one to be grittier and have new ideas. Also he is looking at “four or five” screenwriters to choose from and work on the script.

Thank you for joining in on my review of the “Rush Hour trilogy.” I hope you liked them, stay tuned to what I will review before the month closes out. Speaking of which, I should start thinking about that before next week.

Rush Hour 2

Up next in this funny trilogy is “Rush Hour 2,” which was released in 2001. Worldwide, this film made $347,325,802, making this the most successful film in the “Rush Hour Trilogy.” When Brett Ratner was in an interview, he admitted that the beginning where Chris Tucker (who we hadn’t seen in film since the first Rush Hour) is singing Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” originally wasn’t supposed to be filmed. The reason why was Tucker refused to act like Michael Jackson when the cameras were running since Chris Tucker was really good friends with Michael Jackson. However, Ratner was very sneaky and told the cameraman to film it without having Chris Tucker notice. When Tucker was being interviewed by the talk show host who only wants to talk about cars with his guest, Jay Leno, Tucker said that when they were filming the movie in Hong Kong, many of the people there thought he was NBA star Kobe Bryant. If you remember the part in the film where Tucker is running up the stairs to the ceiling when Chan is fighting the gang, a Chinese woman yells at Tucker saying, “Move out of the way, Kobe.” In the DVD commentary, Ratner confesses that writer Jeff Nathanson came up with that line shortly before they shot that part.

If you notice the mural on the wall in the Heaven on Earth Massage Parlor, it was a copy of the one from the 1983 classic, “Scarface,” both of which Harris Yulin and Ratner appeared in. If you remember when Chan and Tucker are picking girls at the massage parlor, that part came from Bruce Lee’s very famous movie, “Enter the Dragon,” which Chan appeared in, and I have yet to see that movie. Also, the scene where Chan and Tucker are running naked on the streets of Hong Kong was an actual shot. Production could not block the street for that shot. That scene was inspired from a part in Chan’s film, “The Accidental Spy,” which came out before this film. When Ratner saw the movie, he decided to have a similar scene like that in “Rush Hour 2.”

The part where Ricky Tan, played by John Lone, is having that boat party, the song playing in the background is “Tian Mi Mi,” which was also in “Year of the Dragon,” and that was a film John Lone co-starred in. Here’s a little tidbit that nobody probably knows: the hot Hispanic actress, Roselyn Sanchez, gets seasick, so that is shown when Tucker was trying to put the moves on her.

When Chan and Tucker are on the plane flying to Los Angeles, Tucker says that Asian people panic and run when Godzilla would appear. That was a reference. He shouts, “Hayaku! Hayaku!” That is Japanese, which means, “Quickly! Quickly!” When Tucker gets the kosher meal on the plane, originally Tucker turns to Chan and asks him, “Want some of my gefilte fish?” after the stewardess leaves. However, the scene had to be removed because Tucker could not pronounce gefilte, but you can see it in the outtakes when the credits are rolling.

“Rush Hour 2” had a couple of cameo appearances. The first was by Don Cheadle, who agreed to appear on two conditions: he gets to speak Chinese and pick a fight with Chan. When Tucker and Chan are in the business suite, Ernie Reyes Jr appeared as a worker who the two chases. Jeremy Piven also makes a cameo appearance as the gay Versace salesman. Piven and Cheadle were both in “The Family Man,” which was directed by Ratner.

Now the Red Dragon Casino in Las Vegas owned by Ricky Tan and Steven Reign, played by the great Alan King, was actually the Desert Inn hotel and casino. There were red lights that shined which made it a scarlet color. When the 50 year old Las Vegas Strip property was closed in August 2000 by Steve Wynn, the “Rush Hour 2” production moved in and redesigned certain areas of the place as a Chinese themed casino/hotel for the movie. When they had finished production, the Desert Inn was demolished in October 2001 for a new $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas resort. Notice how the casino was named “Red Dragon,” which is also a movie that Ratner would go on to direct a few months after “Rush Hour 2,” which is also the name of a real casino in Mountlake Terrace, Washington.

The fake cash in this movie was called, “In Dogs We Trust.” Some of it had “escaped” from the set and eventually went in a few casinos in Las Vegas.

Here’s a quick trivia: Chan’s favorite number is 32. If you remember that gangster’s car’s license plate of 32 when Chan had spit the grenade out of his mouth and landed on the roulette table, it landed on 32 when it exploded.

At the end fight, Tucker improvised many different speeches after he fought the dangerous Hu Li, played by the very lovely and beautiful Zhang Ziyi. Ratner felt that it would not work and told Tucker to call her the B word, but he refused, and it took hours for Ratner to convince Tucker before he finally agreed. When filming the stunt where Tucker and Chan slide down the wires of Chinese Lanterns, there was a real car chase happening. This is true. A car full of drunk tourists got into an argument with the Taxi Driver, and a car chase ensued down onto the set, narrowly missing crew members, extras, and a crane which had a camera and crew. The good thing is no one was injured. The police detained the driver and the passengers of the taxi.

In a deleted scene, Phillip Baker Hall reprised his role of Captain Diel from the first film. Carter speaks with Diel about what happened when him and Lee were in Hong Kong and how he got in the Triad case. The Triads were the Hong Kong gang that Lee and Carter fought in the beginning. On the DVD commentary, Ratner said that he would have loved to have that scene in the movie, but it did not further the plot, and was left out.

Zhang Ziyi only speaks three English words in the film, two was when she asked Roselyn Sanchez’s character, Isabella, “Some apple?” If you can read lips, than you can see that she is seen in the part where Lee and Carter are spying on Isabella in the next door hotel, Hu Li comes in and says, “Here’s your package. You’re welcome.” Chan was Zhang’s translator while they shot the movie. “Hu Li” actually means “fox.” Here’s a funny story: her role was originally written for a man.
 

Notice how the first two films start in Hong Kong and end in a USA airport. Now the time gap between these two films is approximately four days.

One recurring joke is when Lee says to Carter, “You are a civilian. In Hong Kong, *I* am Michael Jackson and *you* are Toto.” Carter then responds, “You mean Tito! Toto is what we ate for dinner last night!” Another is when Lee thought that Carter was dead in the bomb explosion at his office, and when he finds him on the boat, Carter goes, “Who died Lee?” Lee responds, “You!” Carter than asks, “Detective Yu?” Lee keeps trying to tell him “you” but gets agitated and asks, “Do you understand the words that are a-coming out of my mouth?” (If you remember, Carter asked Lee that when he went to pick him up from the airport.) Carter then responds, “Don't nobody understand the words that are comin' out of your mouth.” Another joke is when Carter throws Lee’s “Beach Boys” CD out of the window, and Lee says in anger, “That's my CD! Don't you ever touch a Chinese man's CD!”

We also find out in the movie that Ricky Tan was the partner of Lee’s father. Lee then tells Carter that Lee’s father was working on a big smuggling case, found out that Tan was working with the Triads, but was killed before he could prove anything. Every evidence disappeared, Tan resigned, and the case was never solved. This film shows Lee and Carter growing, as partners, and I would say that this film is funnier and more enjoyable than the first; so do check it out if you liked the first one.

But how does the third one rate in the trilogy? Find out next time when I look at the final film in the 

Rush Hour

It appears that buddy cop movies always seem to have a lot of comedy in them. That was definitely the case in the “Lethal Weapon” series, but that also had a lot of seriousness in them until the much later films. However, if you look at the “Rush Hour” trilogy, it has more funny and some seriousness. Let’s take a look at the first film, which came out in 1998.

Brett Ratner was chosen as the director for this movie, and he was a big fan of Jackie Chan’s movies from Hong Kong. I have seen both “Drunken Master” movies, and the second one, which in the USA is called “The Legend of Drunken Master,” was really action packed. As a result, I don’t blame Ratner for casting Chan, since he is a great actor who trained at the Peking Opera House. According to wikianswers, Chan has studied several forms of martial arts. He learned from his father, GrandMaster Leung Ting in Wing Chun, Tong Long, and Bak Mei. He knows Hapkido, Boxing, Judo, Taekwondo and Hei Long, but his personal style mixes Wing Chun, Hapkido and Judo. This is the reason why he performs his own stunts and doesn’t use a double. However, Ratner felt that American audiences were unfamiliar with the jokes from Chan’s other movies, so he used some of his jokes on purpose. This can be seen in the part when Chan accidentally grabs Elizabeth Peña’s chest, which a similar situation can be seen in Chan’s 1997 movie, “Mr. Nice Guy.”

For the part of Chan’s partner, Martin Lawrence and Dave Chappelle (who are also two of the funniest comedians out there) were originally considered for the role. However, another funny comedian who has become a serious Christian, Chris Tucker, won the part. On George Lopez’s talk show, Tucker said that Chan used to make him look bad by showing up to work on time. He would tell Chan, “Take it easy in your trailer,” but Chan would respond, “Get to set on time, you wasting money!” Chan is also well-known for messing up his lines. Tucker would say that he would have Chan’s lines on cardboards all over him and he would stand behind the camera. Tucker only messed up one time and Chan rubbed it in his face.

The film grossed a total of over $244 million worldwide, over $141 in the US, and over $103 million outside the US. It was well received amongst critics, giving it a 61% on Rotten Tomatoes and is given a 6.8 on IMDB. This is one of the funniest buddy movies you will see, and I highly recommend you go see it.

You’re probably wondering: What is the film about? Hong Kong is just a few days shy of being a part of the British colony. Chan’s character, Detective Lee, is a cop who busts a smuggling ring, but they escape to USA. Once they arrive there, the leader, Thomas Griffin aka Juntao (Tom Wilkinson) captures Consul Han’s (Tzi Ma) daughter, Soo Yung (Julia Hsu). Juntao tells the FBI that he wants Lee, who is a family friend, to come to Los Angeles to help with the investigation. However, the feds don’t want a cop from overseas to help with the investigation, and they don’t want to get the LAPD involved. In order to do that, the LAPD chief, played by Philip Baker Hall, decides to get a detective that gives him a headache to keep Lee out of the way and also to get him out of the picture. That would be Tucker, playing James Carter, who works in dangerous situations.

Now this pair up is just great because neither one of them like teamwork and prefer to work alone. However, Lee is new to the country and Carter needs to impress his chief. This gives the writers, Jim Kouf and Ross Lamanna, a very good opportunity to write down as many funny jokes and one-liners they can think of.

Chan, as always, performs all of his stunts. The part where he jumps from a double-decker bus onto an overhead traffic sign and lands on a truck, or when he falls from a beam and lands safely on a silk streamer, that’s all Chan. Soo Yung in this film is not your typical helpless child that tries to kick and scream her way out of trouble. She instead is treated like one of Chan’s martial arts students. When Juntao and his men try to kidnap her, she doesn’t give them trouble. Tucker is also great in the way he tries to talk his way out of situations. He does this by using an amusing line of dialogue while he figures out what to do next. Roger Ebert himself said, “’Rush Hour’ is lightweight and made out of familiar elements, but they're handled with humor and invention, and the Wunza formula can seem fresh if the characters are Botha couple of engaging performers.” This is what Ebert had called a buddy movie as a subgenre, which can describe the contrasts between two characters in a typical movie.

Throughout the movie, Lee and Carter grow to become partners and work well with one another. Both had fathers that were legends in the police department, and when they fight over what their father’s did when they were on the force, it all boils down to both of them threatening each other to not disrespect their father. Later on in one of the serious scenes, we find out that Carter’s father was killed in daylight “making a routine traffic stop by some punk who didn’t want no ticket.” The sad part about this is that the partner did not even back him up when he was supposed to. He even tells Lee to prove him wrong in believing his father wasted his life and died for nothing without any honor.

Some of the funny scenes include when Carter tries to teach Lee how to say “y’all” to the Edwin Starr song, “War.” Another is when Carter says to Lee, “This is the United States of James Carter. I'm the president, I'm the emperor, I'm the king. I'm Michael Jackson, you Tito.” One of the memorable funny scenes is when Carter yells at Lee for touching his car radio and warns him, “Don't you ever touch a black man's radio, boy!” How about when Lee hears Carter say the N word and decides to use it himself, and ends up in a fight? One of the funny Carter lines is when he asks Juntao over the phone, "Fifty million dollars? Man, who do you think you kidnapped? Chelsea Clinton?"

Ebert also said, “The movie teams up Jackie Chan, king of lighthearted action comedy, and Chris Tucker, who crosses Eddie Murphy with Chris Rock and comes up with a guy who, if you saw him a block away, you'd immediately start wondering how he was going to con you. There are comic possibilities even in their personal patterns. Chan is not known for his effortless command of English, and Tucker is a motormouth. Chan's persona is modest and self-effacing, and Tucker plays a shameless self-promoter.” That’s all more reason to see this movie. Also, stay tuned after the film to see the bloopers while the credits roll.

The film also had two sequels that were released in the following years, which I will get to later on in the month. Thanks for reading this review, and I hope you enjoyed it.